Incidents of Phishing Against the UAE Residents Rising

According to news reports released by gulfnews on October 22, 2008, international scammers are looking to exploit online users to commit identity theft and seem to be getting more computer savvy while targeting the UAE residents. The reports also stated that subscribers of Etisalat, an e-powerhouse business company, have particularly become the recent targets of the scammers.

Reports also indicated that having made themselves known to the branded UAE companies, online fraudsters, also called "phishers", pretending to be phone companies or banks' payment card companies to steal customers' private information, have begun to target UAE online users in the recent times.

Meanwhile, disclosing details about the new phishing incident, Etisalat said that it recently sent warning e-mails to its subscribers about the phishers' attempts to attack its subscribers. According to Etisalat, during the phishing attempts, scammers sent messages to Etisalat subscribers' eim.ae addresses pretending to be from the telecom organization.

Denouncing the most recent 'phishing' attack against the Etisalat subscribers, security experts said that phishing is a big threat on the net in the present time affecting users globally. They further said that it was necessary for organizations as well as financial institutions to adopt suitable steps to safeguard their users by spreading awareness about the problem and by applying security systems like the two-factor verification system.

According to Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering Dr. Fadi Aloul at the American University of Sharjah, there is a lack of sufficient awareness among the UAE residents of the risks of phishing and this raises concern as attacks are increasing, as reported by gulfnews on October 22, 2008.

Talking about spreading awareness, Aloul commented that it required the combined effort and responsibility of government and private institutions including law enforcement agencies, telecom operators and banks. He added that the UAE, however, was the foremost Gulf country to enforce "sufficient laws" to tackle such criminal activities, but doubted the judges' awareness of online crimes when adjudging such cases.

Meantime, this is not the first time that phishers are targeting the UAE residents. Many of them report of divulging their personal data one time or the other to phishers.